"How far do you say it is, John?" said Mr. Fay, turning to Jack.
"I would rather be excused from expressing an opinion, but I think we could walk out there in two hours."
"And come back the same day?"
"Why, yes; certainly."
"Now, let me tell you," said Mr. Fay: "If you have made up your minds to go out to the mountains, hire a good, fast walking-horse, and go out one day and come back the next."
"Is it as far as that?" exclaimed the boys, looking at each other with amazement.
"It is all of twelve miles. You must take into consideration that the air is very rare up here, and that things appear nearer than they are. You are 5135 feet above the level of the sea."
"My goodness! I didn't think we were so far out of the world!"
"We have awfully uncertain weather here," continued Mr. Fay, "but still we regard our climate as healthy. Our thermometer sometimes changes as much as forty degrees in twenty-four hours. Since Professor Loomis took charge of the matter, the mercury has changed forty-five times in one day. What sort of a place did you expect to find Denver, anyway?"
"Well, I did not know what sort of a place it was," said Julian. "We thought we should find more wigwams here than houses, and you can't imagine how surprised we were when we found ourselves in a depot full of people."